- Friday, April 25, 2025
This victory over Rajasthan Royals puts Bengaluru third in the points table, having won six matches out of nine this season
By: India Weekly
AFTER a hard-fought win over Rajasthan Royals in the IPL in Bengaluru on Thursday, Royal Challengers Bengaluru star Virat Kohli lauded the batting unit for correcting their past mistakes and putting up a competitive score.
This was Bengaluru’s first win at home this IPL season after three defeats. It places them third in the points table, next only to the toppers Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals, having won six out of nine matches.
For Rajasthan, the inaugural IPL title holders, this defeat puts them out of the reckoning for a place in play-offs berth. They have so far lost seven out of nine matches this season.
Put in to bat first, Kohli struck a fluent 70 off 42 balls and shared a 95-run stand with Devdutt Padikkal (50 off 27) for the second wicket before a late flourish propelled Bengaluru to 205 for five in their allotted 20 overs.
In response, Rajasthan made a good start and amassed 110 for two, but Bengaluru’s bowlers, led by Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood, restricted them to 194 for nine.
After the match, Kohli (36) observed, “Look, we’ve had three pretty average games at home and we discussed a few things we need to get right as a batting unit and we applied ourselves well to get the total on board.
He said the pitch wasn’t flat and in the second half the dew “made the ball come on nicely” and credited Rajasthan batters for playing some good shots.
“The first challenge is winning the toss (chuckles). In the second half there is always dew. We’ve struggled to put on a par score,” Kohli said.
“The template is now pretty simple, for one guy to bat through and the others to attack around him. Devdutt and I know this ground well. Just wanted to let Salt to his thing at the top.
“There is pace and bounce in the first few overs with the new ball. Today we just tried to time the ball and keep enough pressure on the opposition to keep giving us boundary balls.”
Among Bengaluru’s bowlers, Hazlewood bowled an extraordinary penultimate over to wrest the initiative away from Rajasthan. He made a match-winning figures of 4/33.
Hazlewood managed to get the crucial wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had amassed 49 off 19 balls and was hitting Bengaluru bowlers at will.
Jaiswal was caught by Romario Shepherd at mid-wicket.
In the 17th over he got Shimron Hetmeyer out, caught by Jitesh, and in penultimate over he took two wickets (Dhruv Jurel and Jofra Archer) and conceded only one run to put brakes on Rajasthan’s run rate.
Bengaluru head coach Andy Flower lauded Hazlewood’s performance, especially his last two overs.
After the match, he told the media, “I would probably refer to both of his last overs because his two overs went for seven runs and he took three wickets in them. Both those overs showed the class of the guy.” (PTI)
